1. Technical Field
This invention is directed to telephone terminals and more particularly, to a telephone terminal configurable by a user for accessing messages available at the terminal through an interactive display arrangement.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current trends in the design of telephone terminals indicate that more and more of telephone functionality is being integrated into the telephone display on the terminal. For example, information as to features available on the display has migrated from light emitting diodes (LEDs) to the display, and local additions such as directories, incoming caller information and the like, are all migrating to the display.
The technology presently in use in telephone displays is character-based liquid crystal device (LCD) displays. These displays are configured in various array sizes such as, for example, a 2 line by 10 character LCD display, a 3 line by 12 character LCD display and even a 4 line by 12 character LCD display. In order to be artfully incorporated into the telephone housing of some telephone terminals, by way of example, the recently introduced ATandT 3760 and 3770 wireless telephone terminals, these displays tend to be small, typically on the order of one inch in height. Also, in order to provide a reasonable number of characters for information such as caller information and directory access information, a small font size for the characters is generally used.
Wireless telephone terminals have evolved to a state where they now permit reception and storage of short messages for access by a user at his or her convenience. Such short message capability has traditionally been provided in paging devices, which alert the user upon receipt of a new message through beeping, vibrating and the like. Since in these devices this message function is usually the only one provided, the user simply presses a button whenever he or she wishes to view the messages, which are typically identified as a series of message headers.
Existing short message-capable wireless telephone terminals rely upon a xe2x80x9cpager modelxe2x80x9d for viewing messages. Such design requires that a user of the terminal initially view a series of message headers. In order to view an entire message, the user must select a specific header in order to view the message body corresponding to that message header. Likewise, the user must take a separate action to exit from the message body level and return to the message header level. It is therefore desirable that the short message capability be incorporated in a telephone terminal in a manner that allows a user to easily access, view and manage a received message presented on a small display.
The prior art problem is solved in accordance with the present invention by providing an arrangement for displaying message screens on a telephone terminal through which easy access to messages received by the telephone terminal from a service provider is available for the user. The arrangement allows users to seamlessly and intuitively view header and body information of a message without the need for any additional, unnecessary key presses.
A set of menu keys or buttons in a user interface provides, in accordance with a first aspect of the invention, quick access to messages as well as other features of the telephone terminal with just a few key presses of these menu keys. The menu keys include a xe2x80x9cRightxe2x80x9d arrow key, a xe2x80x9cLeftxe2x80x9d arrow key, an xe2x80x9cUpxe2x80x9d arrow key, a xe2x80x9cDownxe2x80x9d arrow key, a xe2x80x9cSelectxe2x80x9d key and a xe2x80x9cHomexe2x80x9d key. The Right, Left, Up and Down arrow keys are functionally descriptive in moving between menu screens and advantageously provides a dual axis of control for a user in navigating among a plurality of these menu screens. The Select key selects or advances to a feature choice which is being displayed in a menu screen. Finally, the Home key is used to return a user to an original or starting menu screen in the plurality of menu screens.
In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, each message in a series of messages may be viewed by selecting a xe2x80x9cmessages menuxe2x80x9d choice in a displayed menu. Once this messages menu choice is selected by the Select key, the message header in the displayed menu provides an enumeration for the particular message being displayed as well as a total number of messages in the series of messages. Also in the menu screen, the message body is displayed in available characters spaces on the display and below the message header. If the received message body is greater than the available character spaces of the display, a down-arrow is provided in the display to indicate that the message body continues and that additional information can be viewed by scrolling to the next screen with the Down arrow key. At any point in the message being viewed, the user may step to the next message in the series of messages by pressing the Right arrow key, which sends the user to the top of this next message. The user can use the Left and Right arrow keys in a similar fashion to step backward and forward to all messages. This dual axis of control advantageously allows a user to view the contents of a menu area without having to perform the additional step of selecting, with the Select key, each message in the area.